Clearlake police answered 3 percent more calls, made 6 percent fewer arrests, and made almost 3,700 traffic stops in 2021. Those were a few of the statistics that Clearlake Police Chief Andrew White has outlined to the city council. Lake Co News reports White told the council that violent crime in Clearlake was down 18 percent last year, to a 7 year low, but that he is concerned about a 12 percent increase in larceny cases. The chief also cited recruitment as an ongoing challenge with three officers hired out of a pool of 50 applicants. Overall, he called Clearlake a statistically safer community than it was the year before.
Mendocino County has a new Youth Poet Laureate. Local poets and teachers chose Point Arena High School sophomore Sidney Regelbrugge from a field of 12 young applicants. She will be busy in her new role, conducting at least 5 public readings while writing and publishing her own poems. She will get a $500 scholarship as part of the honor. The 15-year-old calls poetry her home and says she wants to make others equally comfortable with poems and the written word. The Mendocino County Youth Laureate Program is organized by California Poets in the Schools and supported by the Bill Graham Supporting Foundation, with additional support from the Arts Council of Mendocino County and Mendocino County Office of Education.
After some sort of altercation at a home in Willits a man is arrested for allegedly pulling a rifle and shooting it at a group, including small kids. Police say they got a call Wednesday early morning to reports of assault with a firearm, involving family members. The victim reported she, her partner and two kids were trying to leave the home, when her husband was nearly shot by Riley Rogers-Wood as they got into their car. Police say Rogers-Wood then barricaded himself inside with his girlfriend and their newborn. He did come out several minutes later and was arrested. He’s charged with Assault with a Deadly Weapon, Shooting into an Occupied Vehicle, Negligent Discharge of a Firearm and Child Endangerment.
In a surprise move, PG&E has resurrected the Potter Valley Project which they previously said they would stop running. After the energy company’s bankruptcy a group including Sonoma and Mendocino counties were trying to buy the old plant to keep diverting water from the Eel River to the Russian River, but announced they couldn’t gather money or make the deadline to apply for a license from the federal government. PG&E called the project “non-economic” for years. It needs some repairs which could cost between 5 to ten million dollars and it could take up to two years. PG&E surprised many Wednesday announcing it would be beneficial to their customers to do the work and return the project to full operational status and continue operating. Congressman Jared Huffman says he thinks they will still eventually decommission the project.
Year-end numbers for cannabis enforcement by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife have been released. They also reported on environmental damage from the illegal operations, some of which the agency says involved streambed alterations with water diversions, habitat destruction, illegal use of pesticides and poaching. They pulled 2.6 million illegal cannabis plants, destroyed nearly 500,000 pounds of illegal cannabis flower, served 1,125 search warrants, found almost 800 firearms, removed 32,230 lbs. of trash and removed over 400 illegal water diversions. The agency says they have 68 dedicated cannabis enforcement officers working with county, state and federal partners to fight illegal cultivation activity.
$200 million dollars was the cost of trying to remove Governor Gavin Newsom from office. The recall election cost the state and local governments $200.2 million dollars to be exact for the Sept. 14th special election. But voters kept Newsom in a landslide. The Secretary of State reported the expenses were slightly below what had been anticipated. It was the second recall attempt against a Governor in the state, the last one against Gov. Gray Davis was successful. Republican and radio talk show host Larry Elder had the most votes of all who were trying to take Newsom’s job. The state had put $215 million aside for the recall but had projected it would cost $243 million.
The Governor says the state will soon have a so-called “endemic strategy” to continue to deal with COVID-19. He’s mentioned this a couple times the last couple weeks. At the same time the state’s first ever Surgeon General announced she would be leaving the job next Friday. And just a few days before the statewide mask mandate is set to end again. Some parents are still trying to fight schools continuing mask wearing mandates; and some doctors in San Francisco started a petition to get the governor to start removing all remaining COVID-19 restrictions in public schools. But others say not worrying about the virus is impossible for many.
After internet was out across multiple counties, the chief executive officer of internet service provider Sonic says it was vandalism that caused the service interruption. He says vandals tried to steal copper off some railroad tracks in Cloverdale, which actually don’t have copper in them. A cable owned by AT&T was cut by the would-be crooks and the utility company is investigating the crime. Internet was off for several hours after several cellphone towers were knocked offline in Cloverdale, Hopland and Lake County last Thursday night. They also reported degraded service in Healdsburg, Mendocino, Ukiah and Fort Bragg.
